The cherry blossoms are a bloomin’ and the Canada Geese are honking overhead… time to get those early tomatoes started!

I’m getting a better early start this year than I did last spring but I’m still two months behind.  I guess it-is-what-it-is but I do soooo disapprove of lateness.  Just this past weekend I (with the help of wonderful friends) was able to get my market garden plowed for planting and build out my duck breeding yards.  I’m way behind on my spring duck production!  I’ve currently got my Welsh Harlequins and my Black Cayuga ducks sectioned off for breeding.  At this point, it looks like my Cayuga harvest won’t be until the end of July *bleh*.  I should have had them in their yards by the first of February instead of the end of March.  *sigh*  Next year…

The Muscovy will be a staggered harvest this year since one of my hens couldn’t decide if she wanted to set that giant clutch of eggs she’d laid or not.  Little Miss Queeny went broody in December but I wouldn’t let her brood any duck eggs until February (so she wasn’t trying to raise warm weather Amazon waterfowl babies in January).  I replaced them all with infertile chicken eggs instead.  By February I think she was just tuckered out and sick of being inside all the time.  I’m crossing my fingers now… she’s gathered herself a clutch of 15 eggs in a new nesting spot and for the past two days has been more committed to them than the last batch.  If this is the real deal then I’m looking for babies in 35 days.

My Pretty Girl Muscovy has been broody since November!  Oh my, but that girl is committed to the nest… In February I ordered eight American Blue & Lavender-ice Goose eggs for her to set but it’s turned out that not a single one was fertile (sure hope I can find some more this year).  Poor Pretty Girl.  She’s been such a good little momma-wannabe that I broke down and ordered 15 Muscovy ducklings from Hoffman Hatchery in Gratz, PA for her to raise.  I’m hoping they’re able to fill my order this week so I can get them to her… she deserves to have some babies for goodness sake!  I’ll keep two girls from that hatch to add to my breeding flock and harvest the rest at 12 weeks.  Looks like a mid-June harvest.  I’ll have my Cornish chickens arrive to correspond with that harvest and do them both together.

As far as my veggie garden is concerned, I plan to get my peas in the ground and get everything else into their peat pots ASAP.  By the last week of April I should be able to get my pole and snap bean seedlings in the ground along with my short season tomatoes and beets.  Maybe even a few others depending on how much my plastic mulch and cold frames are able to raise the soil temperatures.

Permaculture is the word here at Moose Manor: chickens, ducks & geese are all welcome in the garden at the appropriate time for each of them to do their happy little jobs. 

Chickens first.  They scratch, scratch, scratch at the soil.  Dump in the spring cleaning from the poultry houses and the chickens will spread it all around for you.  They'll also scratch up weeds, eat weed seeds and bugs; all the while depositing nitrogen rich fertilizer right where you need it.  You can use a chicken tractor or just fence them in.

Waddle, chortle, quack! Plant your seeds or seedlings out of scratching range!  Once fully established, trade those chickens in for some ducks (I'm sending in the Indian Runners).  Those broad billed bug busters will keep all the slugs, snails, cutworms, ect. and their eggs from eating your garden before you get a chance to.  No need for chemicals or even hand picking... the ducks are more than happy to help.  You can just dump their wading pools right out on the veggies... duck poop soup is the best fertilizer around!

What's good for the goose is... good for the lazy gardener!  It's also unnecessary to weed if you bring in a few geese.  They'll eat up your weeds for you.  Careful with your cabbages and lettuce though... they'll scarf that up too.  Just herd the geese to the pasture once your strawberries start to ripen so they don't ruin your plans for pie!

I reckon the agenda for this weekend is to move the chickens into the garden plot, clean the duckbarns so I can spread all that nutrient rich composted manure and straw around for the kickin' chickin's to till in, and get my farm-stand signs made for the Moyaone Market (3rd Saturday every month at 2311 Bryan Point Road, Accokeek, MD). 

I’m very excited about the veggie selections I’ve made.  I hope Mother Nature cooperates and that my California green-thumb has accompanied me the 3,000 miles to the mid-Atlantic!  I’ll keep you posted.

It's been a while since I posted about farm going's on.  With a whirl-wind wedding for my brother to help with (and one for my mom next month!) plus a busy time in the office and mad-dash prepping for spring breeding season it's non-stop running!  I've been in a busy-busy-busy organization mode just lately in preparation for lots of babies on the farm soon.  There are so many things that need to be straightened or cataloged or cleaned or stacked... you get the picture.  It's a never ending job but sometimes it requires a determined focus to keep moving forward when you really just want to abandon all hope of ever getting it done!

Coupled with very un-newsworthy chores, the cold weather keeps me inside next to the woodstove more than outside communing with livestock.  But we do have a lot of sunny (if bitterly cold) days to enjoy in the National Capitol Region.  I can take the cold in stride (well almost... I DO hail from the Mojave Desert after all!) as long as there's bright sunshine to help me forget the extra crisp air.  Lucky for me, this week is supposed to be GORGEOUS!  I feel spring fever coming on...

This weekend I grabbed the camera and caught a couple of nap-time shots out in the duckyard.  The chickens were off doing very important chicken things so I'll have to catch you up on them some other time.

Rusty Goosey-Goose does the old "one-footed-nap" thing... I would just topple right over!  I'm not even good at these poses when I'm very purposefully practicing yoga... I wonder how a fat goose is so good at it?
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Rusty is now grumpy that I've disturbed nap-time: "Listen here crazy camera lady with all your fancy snip-snap-snap... we're CLEARLY trying to get some beauty rest here.  You don't think this majesty before you just happens by magic do you?"
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Cindy-Lou and Daisy-Lou, my little runner babies.  These girls are my ditzy blondes of the bunch... they're so funny to watch running around being silly!  These little sweeties just started laying eggs.
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This is Shadow, my Black Cayuga drake.  Isn't he a pretty boy? When he was just a little fuzzy thing he was a "house duck" and lived in Bethesda with a nice gal named Gina.  She called me to find out if I'd adopt him because she had to move and couldn't take Shadow with her.  When he first got here he followed me everywhere talk-talk-talking away.  Then, when it came time to integrate him with the flock, he discovered he was a duck and that he liked living with the other ducks and that I was simply no longer cool anymore.  I was sad the first time he didn't come to sit in my lap when I called him but I knew it was for the best and that he was happy.  He has 3 Cayuga girls to cover now anyway, so he's a busy boy these days.
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Here's Shadow with one of his pretty little Cayuga girls. 

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See how big Shadow is compared to my American Goose? And while he's much lighter than my Muscovy drake (9lbs vs 14lbs) he's similarly sized.  He's also still very talkative with his deep and raspy drake voice.
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There's a special place in my heart for Khaki Campbell ducks.  Don't tell the other ducks, but these gals are my favorite :)  I only have two, this is pretty little Faith.  She's always the first of the group to come up to me when I have treats.  All the ducks are fairly shy (compared to my chickens who'll peck at my feet to get me to throw the greens their way!) and hang back a bit.  But this little gal isn't afraid to step up and ask nicely for her kale treat.  I don't mind so much that I'm just the "food lady", they are ducks after all, but it always makes me smile that she's happy to see me and runs over to see what kind of "salad" I have to hand out today.

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I’ve been watching my lone Welsh Harlequin drake, Duck Dodgers, slowly working his way through a brand new pecking order and it’s been a little heart wrenching but also very interesting.

The Back Story: So when I started out my duck enterprise it was with 3 little Khaki Campbell ducks I hatched in my incubator.  You can read all about them in this post.  Not long after I purchased a flock of 14 adult and juvenile Welsh Harlequins along with 11 assorted tiny ducklings and 2 goslings.  Duck Dodgers was the leader of the pack of the adult Welsh Harlequin when they came to my farm.   The others were happy to follow him to and fro around the property and he was easily able to keep the mostly juvenile drakes in check.  

Well, some sort of predator (hawk or owl most likely) moved in who wasn’t partial to free-range chickens in the least was pleased to see I’d finally set up a free-range duck buffet.  So she invited her raptor friends who especially enjoyed rare Khaki Campbell and Welsh Harlequin duck.  Needless to say, I lost all the Campbell’s and most of the Harlequin in the ensuing months.  Terribly sad and disappointing.  I think I’ve got a good management plan figured out now but poor Duck Dodgers and his WH gal Blush have had to blend in with a separate well established flock since it’s just the two of them left from their old one.

Unfortunately for Duck Dodgers, that established flock includes two large American geese who are, without a doubt, at the top of the pecking order and are unlikely to ever be knocked from their lofty perch (not at almost 30 lbs and over 3 ft tall).  But that little WH drake had to peck and push his way through 11 other ducks to regain some semblance of his previous position. 

He was able to out-push the 3 runner ducks one at a time, the 2 Khaki Campbell’s gave him a run for his money but he eventually won that shootin’ match.  He ran up against 2 rotund brick walls when he next had to challenge the Black Cayuga hens (Darkwing Duck #1 & #2).  That little pecking match lasted a long time.  He would challenge one of those big girls and she was always ready to put her head down and push him back with all her weight.  One day I was watching the latest bout between one Darkwing Duck and Duck Dodgers.  It was a vigorous shoving match and just when I thought old Dodgers was gonna win... one of the geese came over to break  it up. 

Now  I  didn’t  think  that  was.fair so I was a bit disappointed, but - whoa-nelly - not as much as poor Dodgers!  He was clearly very frustrated that the bully goose had stepped in when he was making progress in shoving that Cayuga back a step that he didn’t even bother to lift his head but ran like Toro the Bull straight at the goose and hit him square in the (lower) chest.   He pushed the goose back a step (mostly from surprise, I think) then stamped off, clearly bent out of shape, to the other end of the duck yard draking and muttering who-knows-what all the way.

I wasn’t sure he’d ever out-shove those Cayuga, but watching him today it seems that he’s positioned himself just below the geese.  Ducks are pretty subtle most of the time in their pecking order so I can’t say for certain, but I haven’t seen him spar with any of the other ducks in a while though I have seen him pinch a few to tell them to get out of his way… and they do.

It appears that meek little Blush isn’t interested in climbing the duck ladder so she’s happy to find another water dish when a flockmate is being rude.  I did notice the other day that the Runner drake got a little pinch from her when he got too close.  Guess she's not completely at the bottom ;~)

This was a very stressful week here at Moose Manor.  I had an awful predator problem and lost 7 ducks in 3 days!  I figured that it was a bird of prey, likely a hawk, and though many of my sources said that the signs didn’t point to a raptor issue I pursued that line of prevention anyway.  It got worse as time progressed and I lost 4 ducks in one day.  I won’t go into great detail about the injuries but many of those sweet little birds were not killed by the predator, they were instead left terribly maimed and traumatized, still capable of walking but totally beyond medical attention.  I did the right thing by all of them, which was incredibly emotionally taxing for me and I’m still sad.  Especially since I lost both of my juvenile Khaki Campbell girls in one day – they were my little incubator babies and my favorites.  Little Hardee Campbell and Messie Campbell are gone now and poor, sweet Hardee hung in there until I got home that evening.  I cried and cried when I saw her but knew what I had to do.  The KC drake, Splashie Campbell, just seemed so lost without the girls as he wandered back and forth in the enclosure with the Harlequin.  

I couldn’t keep them all locked in their barns with 100 degree heat so I only gave them a relatively small outdoor area and, other than stretching bird netting over an acre of woods, I tried every trick and crazy suggestion in the book over the several days my ducks were being attacked - most of the “tried and true” methods were completely ineffective.  The one thing that worked was creating a giant web of 20lb test fishing line about 7 feet above the ground over their enclosures and play areas.  I wish I had found this solution the first day!  The night after I put a section of web up I came home feeling very anxious… it worked!!  Over the next few days I spent hours stringing webs of fishing line over the back acre of my property so the ducks could safely free-range.  This has been tremendously effective.

On a happy note, over the last few days little Splash has found his place with the Harlequin.  They’ve finally accepted him as one of their own and a few times this weekend I saw him “leading the pack” as they waddled across the barnyard, which made me smile for him.  All the ducks are enjoying their freedom and with the high heat index I put out several small pools for them to splash in and they seem to be having a rompin’ good time.

The chickens, baby chicks, and baby ducks were unaffected by the hawk.  Apparently, this raptor had her mind set on grown duck for dinner so – thankfully – I had no losses in that area.  In fact, the baby ducks are growing by leaps and bounds!  They’re mostly feathered out and the girls have found their quackers.  No little budgie sounds from their play pen anymore…they’re a pretty noisy bunch these days – LOL!  

They have 2 litter pan pools and a bigger 36-inch tub to splash around in.  They just love the water so much I can’t imagine depriving them of a proper pond!  There are two little Khaki Campbell ducklings in this bunch and they had me cracking up this weekend.  I sit out there and have a beer with them most evenings after my chores are done and all 13 of them were trying to cram themselves into the 2 litter pans then they would all run over to the bigger tub and jump in there for a while, then back to the pans.  They’re just making this huge mess, chasing each other back and forth, flapping their wings and quack-quack-quacking… basically having a ball.  I noticed these baby Campbell’s just seemed so extra excited about their little game and one of the girls was dipping her head into the water, splashing it all over, then loudly stamping her feet in the puddle she was making.  It was just so funny!  She would make this excited little qUAck, then DipSplash, DribbleDribble, then do this little dance… SplatSpatSplat! Made me think of a kid in his little gumboots… too cute!

It was miserably hot this weekend and in the middle of the day the geese would hog up a whole litter pan just sitting in it to cool off.  I was jealous that I didn’t have a tub of water to sit in myself!   And up until this weekend the Harlequin only thought of me as the crazy lady who stuffed them into a big dog kennel and drove them across town in a hot car.  When I was in their line of sight they boogied it on out of the area.  But over the last few days we’ve become very good friends.  They heard me filling one of the kiddie pools this weekend and ran right over to see what that wonderful noise was.  They stood off at a “safe” distance panting in the heat and watching me fill the pool with cold water and while I chatted away they inched closer and closer.  I turned the hose sprayer to mist and aimed it at them and they were just in heaven!  They came right up to within about a foot of me and the boys aimed their big chests into the spray while the girls tried to catch the bigger drops with their beaks.  Now any time I turn on the hose they run over and want to be showered!  I guess I’m no longer the crazy lady because now they tend to congregate wherever I’m hanging out in the yard.  They probably don't want to miss an opportunity to get a cool dousing!

This last is completely unrelated to ducks: if you enjoy reading about my farm please check out this gals blog.  She and I have a lot in common and her posts usually make me laugh which was a much needed antidote for last week!

The baby ducks and geese are growing so fast!  They’re all getting feathers, learning to quack, and swimming in their “pond”.  It’s been pretty hot so keeping lots of water in their run is a high priority, between swimming in it, drinking it, and generally making a mess with it, I’m finding it tough to keep the buckets full – LOL!

My three juvenile Khaki Campbell’s were put out to roam for the very first time this weekend.  I worried mostly that they wouldn’t know where to go in at night because for all their little lives I’ve carried them back and forth from grazing pen to the barn in a Rubbermaid tub.  So early one morning I put them into the duck enclosure while the Harlequin were lazily sleeping-in inside the duck barn.  The Campbell’s weren’t sure what to do with themselves at first but found the little pond in the enclosure and set up shop.  When the Welsh Harlequin came out and saw these strange ducks in their pond they chased the Campbell’s out of it.  Those little KC’s were determined to make friends with their new found barn-mates and were undeterred by the wing flapping and squawking.  The Harlequin were not overly mean but certainly didn’t think they needed any new additions to their little group.  So when they set off to forage out on the property the determined Campbell’s waddled along behind.  Soon they were accepted at the lunch table with the cool kids... but at the bottom of the pecking order.  They still won’t go in the duck barn by themselves yet.  It seems like the Harlequin have made it known that the duck barn is their domain, but there is soooo much room in there!  The Campbell’s can have half all to themselves, for goodness sake.  So every night I gather up my little brown ducks and stuff them in the pop-hole to sleep in the in safety with the others.  Eventually they’ll get it figured out.

The Muscovy have become even more friendly… when I sit on the ground out in the barnyard taking pictures they come right up, almost in my lap, to see what I’m doing.  I was surprised a few times because I had my eye up to the viewfinder and didn’t see them all sneak up on me.  They’re probably looking for a treat!  I came out with some wilted asparagus the other day and as I was tossing sticks of asparagus to them they were running over to get some and stealing it from each other.  Poor things… that stuff was wilted but it still has such a tough outer skin that they had to chew and chew and chew. 

I’ve got my eye on three Muscovy that I’d like to keep for my own flock.  The whole group is friendly and extremely curious but some of them are genuine characters and a couple of the girls are very pretty.  One of the really big boys likes to eat the feed right out of the bucket when I’m filling the feeders.   So I pour some in the feeder, then hold out the bucket for him to grab a few mouthfuls, then fill the other feeders.  He follows me around and it’s like “one for me, one for the rest of you jokers”.  He likes to be petted too… he’s pretty cute so I’ll probably keep him.

I lost a juvenile Harlequin drake and a Muscovy duck to aerial predators this week while I was at work.  Either a very large hawk or an eagle, based on the size and weight of the ducks.  It’s very sad when this happens and it really freaks the other ducks out.  They all stayed inside for the better part of 2 days after the attack but they’re finally back out free ranging cautiously.  Though the Muscovy are sticking very close to the barn and trying to stay out of the open.  The dogs are very good at keeping the ground predators away; I’ve never had trouble with birds of prey during the day so this is new to the dogs.  I know blue jays, robins, and crows are great at keeping the airspace clear of aerial hunters so I’ll need to be sure to provide plenty of feed for those birds too.  Having geese and turkeys usually works well also, maybe I should hang on to those 2 sweet American Lavender-ice geese…

These little guys are my some of my latest additions from Holderread Waterfowl Conservation Center.  There are 13 various ducklings: 2 Khaki Campbell's, 3 Black Cayuga, 3 Indian Runner, 3 Welsh Harlequin, and 2 American Lavender-Ice Geese. 

They were sold as a single lot so I obviously got more fowl than I really needed here, which means I have to make the difficult decision about which of these little fuzzies I want to sell!  It's always hard when they're so cute and entertaining.  But I can already see that I don't have anywhere near enough grass on my property to support these two geese.  They're rather sweet little gals but they eat grass as a primary source of food and if they eat all my grass the other birds won't have as many cool places to forage for bugs.  But these are Holderread geese that fetch a premium price as hatchlings so I shouldn't have any trouble selling them for half their value when they're fully started.  They're sure sweet tho...

They really seem to be thriving and so happy.  I've got them out on a large patch of grass in a movable enclosure and I repurposed an old doghouse for a "Duckloo" shelter.  This big group is actually a lot of fun to watch - it's my evening duck TV.  They really have such a flocking nature and are, as a whole, so much more excitable than the Muscovy.  That's not saying much though - LOL!   The geese are rather calm but the others... not so much.  The flightiest of all are the Indian Runners.  But aren't they a hoot? They stand straight up, like a person, and boy can they move!  They don't have a ducky waddle like the rest, when they stand up they run across their enclosure and everyone follows in an excited, peeping stampeed!
Along with the babies I also acquired a group of 11 beautiful Welsh Harlequin.  Two are laying now, which is a bonus, and 4 will begin laying this fall.  There are more drakes than is truly optimal so I'll offer some of them for sale - and if they're not in a new home by next month they'll go into the next harvest. 

I gave the grown Harlequin the entire duck barn and duck enclosure all to themselves until they get settled in.  They're still figuring out their new home and aren't used to my schedule yet - which is evidenced by the fact that I've only collected 1 egg from the 2 layers in 4 days.  Convincing them to go inside the duckbarn the first two nights was hard - I finally had to scoop them up one by one and stuff them inside. They're catching on more every day so I think by this weekend I'll let them out onto the property to free range.  They've finally learned to go back inside through their little pop-door when it gets dark, which is excellent (or at least one has learned and the rest are following).  No more duck-chase at bedtime :)   I just wanted them to know where to come back to every night before I let them roam.

The Harlequin are still very unsure of me so it's hard to get photos. I can watch them splashing in their pool and chattering to each other only if I hide behind something and peek around - LOL! As soon as I'm in their line of sight they all scurry into the duck barn.  Which is the opposite of the babies... when they see me coming to lock up the Duckloo for the night they all come pouring out and I have to gather them up and put them in by hand.  They've got the first part figured out: go inside at dark.  I hope soon they understand they need to stay in until I get the door closed!

I'm now up to 6 seperate enclosures to feed and water twice a day (if I don't count Buffy's broody-box)... Whew!  Boy, my little farm is growing every time I turn around!